With the Geneva Motor Show now in our rear-view mirrors, our focus shifts to the upcoming New York Auto Show. That’s where Toyota will reveal its all-new RAV4, previewed in this initial teaser image.
The Japanese automaker has given us precisely squat to go on, aside from this image – except to say that it’s coming to the Manhattan expo.
Now entering its fifth iteration, the RAV4 remains far and away Toyota’s top seller. Last month, it sold nearly 30,000 of them in the United States alone – well ahead of the 25,000 Corollas it moved over the same period (including both the sedan and the formerly Scion IM hatchback) and far outpacing the ~16,000 each of the Highlander and Tacoma in Toyota’s truck-sales rankings.
In short, the new RAV4 will be a vital product for Toyota. So you can expect the manufacturer to throw all the weight of its considerable resources behind it.
We’re expecting the new crossover to adopt far more muscular styling, inspired by the FT-AC concept. It’s anticipated to share its underpinnings with the C-HR and the new Lexus UX (to say nothing of the Prius, Camry, and others), and incorporate all the latest safety and infotainment technologies Toyota has at its disposal.
Look for motivation to come mostly in four-cylinder form. Like the current model, there’ll likely be a hybrid option – if not two, as Toyota recently introduced on the new Auris. But the purely electric RAV4 EV went the way of the dodo with the last generation, and we wouldn’t expect it to return without an internal combustion engine to back it up.
We’ll have to wait a little longer to find out more, but not much longer. The new RAV4’s debut is scheduled for 9:10 a.m. EST on Wednesday, March 28.